Tag Archives: new mexico jazz workshop

Carla Does Carla

Carla Van Blake. Photo courtesy of Carla Van Blake.

Carla Van Blake (aka Carla Van Blake Terwilliger) possesses a variety of skills, from software engineering to couture design to jewelry making, but her first and enduring love is music. Starting in a gospel choir at age three, Van Blake expanded her repertoire to blues and jazz as an adult. When trumpet maestro and jazz icon Bobby Shew heard her for the first time, he said, “The phrasing and everything was right, and she sings in tune, and she has the whole persona as a jazz singer.” In 2018, she released her first jazz album, Land of Enchantment, a New Mexico Music Awards finalist that includes 10 originals.

She’s led an interesting life, growing up in New York State and Nigeria, volunteering with the Peace Corps in Mali, and surviving a near-death experience (see my article from Albuquerque The Magazine, appended below). So it seems only fitting that, for her appearance in the New Mexico Jazz Workshop’s Jazz Stories 3.0 series on September 24, she will be presenting “My Life, My Music,” featuring original music, with the help of Jim Ahrend (piano), Steve Terwilliger (guitar), Rob “Milo” Jaramillo (bass), John Bartlit (drums), and special guest, reed maestro Arlen Asher.

Carla and I had recently spoke about the upcoming event, and the lightly edited interview follows.

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Happily in the Groove

Arnaldo Acosta.

Arnaldo Acosta.

Just look at the picture. It’s a far cry from the usual jazz artist publicity image depicting the
macho musical philosopher or the steely sage of 64th-note solos or the über-hip conqueror of harmonic heights.

This picture of drummer Arnaldo Acosta is about sheer jubilation, about jumping for joy. Here’s a man who loves his work, and his work is bringing the groove to your ears, heart, and soul.

This Saturday, in the New Mexico Jazz Workshop’s final concert of the summer season, the
Arnaldo Acosta Quintet, featuring Aaron Lovato (sax), Phil Arnold (trombone, harmonica), Stu MacAskie (keys), and Colin Deuble (bass), will explore the happy grooves of soul jazz, with the
intention of spreading a feel-good vibe throughout the amphitheater. (Also appearing on the bill is the Pat Malone Quartet, with the guitarist joined by Kanoa Kaluhiwa on sax, Colin Deuble on bass, and Diego Arencon on drums.) Continue reading →

Drummer Billy Cobham Fuses Precision and Power

When drummer Billy Cobham hits a drum head with a stick, that sucker stays hit. Combining explosive aggression with a subtle rhythmic sensibility accented with a Spanish tinge, Cobham blasted his way to prominence as a founding member of the Mahavishnu Orchestra, the
prototypical fusion band of the early 1970s.

Photo by Faina Cobham.

But it was his own recording, Spectrum, that unexpectedly launched his career as a leader in 1973. Intended as a showcase to help him find work as a sideman, the album, which fused funk, jazz, and rock, established Cobham as a virtuoso force to be reckoned with, both as a leader and a composer.

On the 40th anniversary of that recording, the Billy Cobham Spectrum 40 international tour is revisiting those compositions, which are now informed by a career that spans more than 50 years and, it seems, about as many musical genres. From George Duke to the Grateful Dead, Nigeria’s Okuta Percussion to Cuba’s Asere, Ron Carter to Jack Bruce, Kenny Barron to Peter Gabriel, Cobham has played with an astonishingly wide range of artists and absorbed literally a world of musical influences in the course of his creative journey.

This Saturday, the New Mexico Jazz Workshop presents the tireless drummer at the Kimo
Theater. He’ll be bringing longtime compadres Dean Brown (guitar), Gary Husband (piano), and Ric Fierabracci (bass) with him to explore new arrangements of the classic Spectrum
compositions.

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Shafted, but in a Good Way

Artwork by M.Jones.

Artwork by M.Jones.

It’s been years since the last big blues bash in Madrid at the old ballpark—those all-day, three-chord celebrations of blue notes that corralled every blues man and woman for miles around. It was good times for kids and adults alike, but spending hours in the dusty field under a hot sun could take its toll.

The New Mexico Jazz Workshop has found a way to revive those good times but under what should be more comfortable conditions. This weekend, they’ll launch the latest edition of the Madrid Blues Fest at the Mine Shaft Amphitheater, a tented venue with a small stage and cover for several hundred blues fans. The facility is right next to the longest bar in New Mexico,
located in the Mine Shaft Tavern (est. 1899), which also has one of the better green chile cheese burgers in the state, tasty hand-cut fries, and a longstanding dedication to good music.

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